Claire Jackson

Claire Jackson is a regular contributor to BBC Music magazine and Country Life

Sunday

Claire Jackson

John Lewis’s Christmas decorations are its tackiest yet

From our UK edition

John Lewis’s new ‘heirloom splendour’ Christmas range features baubles that mimic a miniature vacuum cleaner, sewing machine, TV – permitted its status in the collection by dint of its bulbous antenna – and a morose-looking pink dog presumably modelled on a Staffordshire figurine. If one were to decorate an entire tree in these monstrosities, it would cost upwards of £300 – that is if you followed the advice of that other seasonal stalwart M&S, which opines: ‘We recommend 40 filler baubles as your base layer, 18 statement pieces and eight collectable ornaments for added wow factor.

Saturday

Claire Jackson

When did libraries become so noisy?

From our UK edition

Beside me, children sing the 'Hokey Cokey'. I subconsciously put my left foot in – and out – under the desk, where I face an empty page. Willing concentration to return, I turn to a tried and tested method: staring out of the window. The small garden is a stage for white butterflies that flutter in the vista, ringing in the cyclical changes viewed from this spot. Snowdrops, daffodils, dandelions, grasslands, mud. The library was the last refuge of those in need of peace and quiet; now, the apple has been plucked from the tree ‘Woah, the hokey cokey cokey!’ The sharply increased volume makes me physically jump. To my right, a man grimly adjusts his headphones and swigs from a flask. Now, five little speckled frogs were sat on their speckled log.

Sunday

Claire Jackson

The bloody confessions of a Claire’s Accessories ear piercer

From our UK edition

During the early noughties, I pierced hundreds of ears at Claire's Accessories, the chain store that collapsed into administration last month in the UK. These piercings rarely went smoothly and the evidence often resurfaced: a wonky earring here, a scar there. Good riddance (unemployment notwithstanding), then, to this lavender blight on teen culture. After a week or two of mutilating cardboard ears, I was let loose on real ones I had just turned 16 when I joined Claire's and my Saturdays became filled with blood, sweat and tears. I recently saw a meme posted by a Gen Z colleague mocking a millennial for career advice that advocated walking around a city centre handing out CVs.